Carbon Capture falls prey to Recession

Many are skeptical that Carbon Capture and Sequestration is a solution to climate change. The argument goes that coal can never be clean, and the costs and risks of storing carbon pollution deep underground makes CCS a false solution. The skeptics may now be joined by Southern Co., which is pulling out of an almost $700 million dollar CCS project in Alabama.

The demonstration project was to be cited at Southern's Plant Barry, and it was earmarked for about $295 million in federal stimulus funding through the Energy Department's Clean Coal Power Initiative. Had it been built, it would have captured 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from a 160-megawatt flue gas stream and then store in underground rock formations.

Southern spokesman Steve Higginbottom told EE News: "The current economic conditions also factored into the decision."

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